Being a pessimist is not bad. I am a Safety Officer

I am not into a fight against all those optimists who read this, nor am I willing to contribute to the conundrum of never ending discussions on ’optimism/pessimism’. In my opinion it is the balance between optimism and pessimism more often in the wake of wisdom or past experiences and learning that guide decision making. Just like the share market is live only because both bulls and bears are sufficient in numbers. If all the people who invest in share market turn bullish on all the companies in the stock market, then do you think that the system can exist? If there are no bears, who will all these bulls buy shares from? In the same way share market with only bears will plunge to rock bottom levels.

I am an optimist- but only until I wear the suit of the Safety Man. It is the optimists who help companies grow and flourish. All companies with incredible growth stories to boast about are driven by visionary and optimist leaders. If they don’t invest more money and sit on their armchairs in fear of losing money in business, those growth stories would never have happened. So if the company leaders think that they will hire only optimists, will the company exist? So is it sufficient for the companies to have only optimists? You certainly need to have a bunch of people who are ready to tackle all sorts of emergencies. Those pessimists who walk around in search of unsafe acts and unsafe conditions are enemies of those who opt for short cuts, violate rules and always believe that the worst might have happened. These pessimists are always afraid that such acts and any deviation from the textbook theories they believe in may lead to incidents and that incidents can be costly. So the optimist and the pessimist comes to discuss, sits on either ends of a table, tries to convince each other of the repercussions of the perception of the latter. They agree on a mutually acceptable condition and name it as ‘As Low As Reasonably Practicable –ALARP’. The optimist is happy as he has corrected certain behaviours within himself. The pessimist is happy because he has corrected the optimist and corrected some behaviors or conditions that would have resulted into incidents had they not been corrected. The pessimist searches for similar conditions elsewhere in the plant where similar situations/ threats are present. The pessimist goes and prepares a CAPA action plan and implements the corrective and preventive actions across the site. The pessimist is still not happy, he goes and meets each and every line manager to track the compliances to and checks the effectiveness of the CAPA. Now the pessimist prepares an ‘Internal audit report’. The pessimist hires another pessimist who can find out more number of unsafe acts and conditions and document it under the name ‘External/ Third party audit report’.

What will an optimist think when he finds a technician using a wrong tool for a particular job? Will the optimist be happy that he has found some means on his own so as to execute the job? – I don’t know. But I am sure that the pessimist in me won’t be happy with it. The pessimist is haunted by the risks involved in it and acts on it, advices the technician to use proper tools. The pessimist in me (not the ego) asked him to stop the work until the right tools are made available. This pessimist is highly disliked.

The pessimist in me reported near misses very often so that they can be investigated and corrective actions taken. The optimist though that those near misses that had happened won’t repeat again even if they are not reported or investigated.

Defensive driving is nothing but the conflict of thoughts within a driver driving his vehicle in which the pessimistic thoughts win over optimistic ones. An experienced driver can always foresee that there is a huge chance that a hatchback that tailgates a bus will shift its lane to overtake. A good defensive driver can always foresee the worst and avoid it while being risk averse.

If you are so optimistic and proud of your skills, you may be ready to walk on a thin beam a hundred meter above the immediate floor level being so sure that you will never fall.

The pessimist believes that poor housekeeping can result into incidents.

‘For want of a nail, the horseshoe was lost

For want of a horseshoe, the horse was lost

For want of a horse, the warrior was lost

For want of a warrior, the war was lost

For want of a war, the Kingdom was lost

And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.’